Course Objectives

To give students an overview of the way Japan has developed
from the feudal, isolationist society of 1850 to the major
industrial power of today.
Political, social, and economic changes will all be covered.

What goes into your grade

Your grade in the course will be based mainly on the written
work I have assigned. You cannot do extra papers for extra credit.
You can improve your grade a bit by participating in class discussion.
The best way to pick up extra points is to argue against me in class;
If you can point out to me that I have made a mistake you get two points
extra in the gradebook. If you present a good clear argument that I am wrong about something,
with evidence, then your grade may be boosted even if you do not
succeed in convincing me.

I do not emphasize trivial factual details in this course.
On tests and quizzes I will
NOT ask you to name the Prime Ministers who served during the
1950's, much less tell me the exact dates they served.
There are some facts you need to know, but they are more important
things than names and dates.

The written work will be:
--Four short papers, on assigned topics, worth 40 points each,
two of which will be newspaper research exercises.
--A test
(70 points) and the final exam (120 points),
which will be mostly essay questions.
--One minor essay quiz, which will be
announced in advance. 20 points.

This adds up to 370 points. I use a 90%, 80%, 70% scale, sometimes
modified in favor of students but never against them. In other words,
333 points (90% of 370) is guaranteed to be an A, 296 points is guaranteed to be a
B, 259 points is guaranteed to be a C. But 332 or 328 points
might quite possibly become an A, depending on how the class as a whole is doing.

Any student who has an average of 90% or better, for work up to the
final exam, will be permitted to exempt the final.

Academic Integrity Policy

Academic integrity requires that we not try to pass other people's
work off as our own.

As far as I can recall, I have not caught any students committing
plagiarism in this course, in past years. But experience with plagiarism
in other courses at Clemson suggests that if there were to be a plagiarism
case in this course, it would probably take the form of one student copying
another student's 40-point short paper, maybe changing a few words and substituting
synonyms, but leaving the two papers still so similar that it is
obvious the resemblance could not be coincidence.
I would be likely to bring charges both against the student who
copied and the student who allowed his or her paper to be copied.

There are some ways in which it is perfectly all right
for student to help each other. If two students
want to study together getting ready for a test, great.
Only if help were still being given after I had handed out the questions
would the help become improper.
But if two people work together on a newspaper research exercise,
and turn in papers that are very similar because each has been
getting a lot of help from the other in writing it, both will be
in deep trouble. If one of your fellow students asks to look at your paper, to
get a better idea of how the assignment was to be done, please say no.
They should come to me to ask for further explanations
of the assignment, rather than looking at a completed paper to
give them their clues. If too papers are so similar it is obvious the author of one must
have seen the other, I will file charges.

Policy on late work

Under normal circumstances, my policy is: If you do not do written work on time, then
with any reasonable excuse you will be able to make it up.
However, you will be marked off for lateness. You will be marked
off even if your excuse is very, very good. You can avoid a penalty
only if I have told you before the work was due that you would be able
to do it late without penalty.
40-point short papers will not usually be accepted at all (you just get an
F) if they are more than seven days late.

This policy will change if we have an epidemic of flu, and especially if we have an epidemic of H1N1 flu, on campus
this semester. If you have the flu, it is really better to stay home, rather than come to class in order to turn in work
on time. I will allow students to turn in late work without the normal penalty if they can document treatment for flu (Redfern
Health Center will issue documents with a special stamp to students who have been treated there for flu).

Attendance policy

You are allowed up to six cuts INCLUDING EXCUSED ABSENCES.
You lose two points for every unexcused absense after that.
I would advise you not to take even five.
I am going to be saying quite a few things in lectures that are not
in the reading. Even if you are very careful about doing all the
assigned reading, you will have trouble answering the questions on
my tests if you have not been at the lectures.

If I am Late

If I have not gotten to class by 9:10,
I would be grateful if a student would go bang on my office door and see whether I
am there. If I still have not arrived by 9:15, you can give up on me and leave.

Assigned reading

There are three books you should buy:
Modern Japan, 2d ed., by Duus
Shadow Shoguns, by Schlesinger
Peasants, Rebels, Women, and Outcastes, 2d ed., by Mikiso Hane

There will also be reading that I ask you to do online.

Course Outline

The following course outline is
tentative. It may be modified slightly by class request,
or as a result of shifts in what I find practical to place online. Items
marked >>> are required reading;
items marked *** are tests.

August 28: The Western Impact and Initial Japanese Reactions
>>> Duus, pp. 61-81

August 31, September 2: The early years of the Meiji era
>>> Duus, pp. 85-111. (If you have seen the film "The Last Samurai," notice that the events on which
the film was based are covered on pp. 106-107 of Duus.)
*** September 7: Quiz

Short paper due September 14. Topic: how westernized had Japan become,
by the early 20th century (meaning approximately 1900 to 1914)? Length: about 500 words, or more.

September 16: The Rise of Party government
>>> Duus, pp. 171-184

September 18: Peasants and farm life
>>> Hane, pp. 29-59

September 21: The Military; Rural Women
>>> Hane, pp. 59-101

September 23: Review

*** TEST September 25

September 28: The Struggle for Survival
>>> Hane, pp. 103-136

September 30: Outcastes
>>> Hane, pp. 139-171

October 2: Prostitution; Coal Miners
>>> Hane, pp. 207-245

October 5: Women Rebels
>>> Hane, pp. 247-292

October 7: Economic growth and social change
>>> Duus, pp. 185-199

Short paper due October 7. Topic: To what extent had the common
people of Japan gotten actual benefits from the modernization of Japan, up
to the 1930s? Length: about 500 words, or more.

October 9: From Japan's growing sphere of influence in
China to the rise of the nationalist military fanatics in the
1930's.
>>> Duus, pp. 200-236

No Class October 12 (Fall Break)

October 14, 16: The Second World War.
>>> Duus, pp. 236-250

October 19,21: The American Occupation of Japan begins
>>> Duus, pp. 253-273

October 23, 26, 28: The New Japan; the Cold War in Asia
>>> Duus, pp. 274-312

October 28: Short paper . Newspaper research exercise. Go to the library,
and check to see what one or two newspapers
or newsmagazines were saying about Japan in 1960. (There were particularly dramatic protests in May and June, by Japanese
who disliked Japan's alliance with the United States, but you don't have to focus on those if
you don't choose.) Use at least four articles. Write an essay of about two pages (typed double spaced), or more, about what you
found. Say what there was in the articles that you found interesting or surprising. Evaluate
the attitudes
of the authors. Is there anything that leads you to distrust them, or to
think that the facts may
be being distorted to fit the author's viewpoint? Notice
the source; did the reporter say that something was true, or only that somebody else had
said it was true? If you say there is bias, please make it clear exactly what was said,
that you consider biased. What kind of bias was it (false statements, or use of emotionally
loaded language, or just careful selection of facts so that only
facts favorable to one side get mentioned)?
I want to see one essay based on several articles, not a string of essentially separate
mini-essays, each based on a single article. Try to select articles that will allow
you to have some unifying themes in your essay.

Please give source notes. I want to be able to tell in each section of your paper
which article or articles you are discussing in that section. It is not enough to have
a list at the end, if I canít tell as I read the paper which article you are discussing
where. Source notes must give page numbers.
I donít care about the format of source notes as long as they tell me what I need to
know. Any format that allows me easily to discern the name of the author
if it was given, the title of the
article, the title of the publication, and the date and page, is OK.

There is no requirement that you use The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the
Washington Post, or The Times of London,
but those papers have the advantage that you can access them online through the
Clemson
Library's Articles Access Page. If you want to use newspapers other than those, your best bet
is to go to the Microfilm Reading Room on level 2 of the Library, which has quite a few newspapers
on microfilm. Under normal circumstances, if you wanted to use weekly newsmagazines, I would suggest you use the ones
bound into volumes, on the shelves on level 1 of the library. But now that section of the library is under renovation. The
only weekly newsmagazine whose back files are available online, so far as I know, is Time. You can get to it by
going through the Clemson Library's online catalog.

November 5, 7: Kakuei Tanaka and his political machine
>>> Schlesinger, Part I

November 6, 9: The Strange Victory of Kakuei Tanaka
>>> Schlesinger, Part II

November 11: The Bubble of the 1980s
>>> Duus, pp. 331-350

November 13, 16: The Tanaka machine in the 1980s
>>> Schlesinger, Part III

November 18: The malaise of the 1990s
>>> Duus, pp. 351-368

November 20, 23: Politics in the 1990s
>>> Schlesinger, Part Four

Thanksgiving: No Class November 25, 27

November 30, December 2, 4: 21st Century Japan
>>> Edward J. Lincoln, "Japan in 2001: A Depressing Year." Asian Survey, February 2002, pp. 67-80,
online through the Library catalog.
>>> David Arase, "Japan in 2008: A Prelude to Change?" Asian Survey, January/February
2009, pp. 107-119, online through the Library catalog.
>>> Martin Fackler, "Leader of Japan's Opposition Resigns." New York Times,
May 12, 2009, A6.
>>> Martin Fackler, "In Reporting a Scandal, the Media Are Accused of Just Listening." New York Times,
May 28, 2009, A9.
>>>> At least one additional article to be chosen later.

November 30: Hand in short paper . Newspaper research exercise. Go to the library
or on the Internet (LexisNexis is good) and check to see what one or two newspapers
or newsmagazines have been saying about events in Japan in 2009. Use at least
four articles. Write an essay of about two pages (typed double spaced), or more, about what you
found. Say what there was in the articles that you found interesting or surprising. Evaluate
the attitudes of the authors. Is there anything that leads you to distrust them, or to
think that the facts may be being distorted to fit the author's viewpoint? Notice
the source; did the reporter say that something was true, or only that somebody else had
said it was true? If you say there is bias, please make it clear exactly what was said,
that you consider biased. What kind of bias was it (false statements, or use of emotionally
loaded language, or just careful selection of facts so that only
facts favorable to one side get mentioned)?
I want to see one essay based on several articles, not a string of essentially separate
mini-essays, each based on a single article. Try to select articles that will allow
you to have some unifying themes in your essay.

Please give source notes. I want to be able to tell in each section of your paper
which article or articles you are discussing in that section. It is not enough to have
a list at the end, if I canít tell as I read the paper which article you are discussing
where. Source notes must give page numbers if they are available (even when you read
a newspaper article online, the web site will usually tell you what the page number
was in the newspaper).
I donít care about the format of source notes as long as they tell me what I need to
know. Any format that allows me easily to discern the name of the author if that
was given, the title of the
article, the title of the publication, the date and page, and where you found it on
the Internet if that is where you found it, is OK.